Ten British cities are to share in £50million of government funding aimed at making them 'super-connected', with ultra-fast broadband coverage.
The money will be shared among London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Bradford, Belfast, Bristol and Cardiff, and the agency handling the project on behalf of the government says that, by 2015, it will mean that 1.7 million homes and 200,000 businesses will have access to ultra-fast broadband.
Andrew Ferguson of Thinkbroadband.co.uk said the announcement showed that “broadband has obviously clawed its way up the priority list, being mentioned as one of the key infrastructure projects that the UK needs to spend money on.”
He added that the cash should help British businesses compete in export markets.
However, he also said: “It is very difficult to see how £100 million can deliver [100Mbps broadband] to some 1.9 million premises.
“The reality is that in many cities, commercial roll-outs are ensuring many people already have the option of 100Mbps, thus the £100 million will actually be used to connect those where commercial companies have decided it is too expensive to roll out their newest services.”
